Aircraft.



H. WLSUN-FOX.

AIRCRAFT.

- APPLICATION FILED Nov. 21, um;4

l,298,.133. Patented Mar. 25,1919.

HENRY Winsome-fox, or LONDON, ENGLAND.

` amenait n Specification of Letters Patent.: Pmnted )Ian 25, 1919.

Application iled Hovember 21, 1918. Serial No. 263.6655.

. To all lwhom t may concern.'

Be it known that Huisnr WILSON-Fox,

a subject of the King of Great Britain, and p a resident of London, EnglandLhave. invented certain new and .useful Improvements in Aircraft, of which the following is a1 and the planes. A machine constructed iii accordance with my invention should be considered primarily as an aeroplane, the aerostat being used for the purpose of giving the aeroplane a larger radius of action. That is to say, the aerostat Yis not necessary for the support of the machine in flight but is utilized to give the machine the ability to rise rapidly wlhile during subsequent flight the aerostatic eiect may be and is in` iat the requiredr pressure.

are all coupled lby means of pipes 5 to pipe tended to be, destroyed by the use of the hydrogen' or other gas as fuel for the engines. In other words amachine according to my invention starts its flight as a comq bined aeroplane and aerostat but may finish its fiight. purely as an aeroplane The invention may therefore be dened as an aerial machine V'comprisinfg in combination an aerostat, supporting planes themselves capable of supporting the machine during iiightland means for utilizing the gas of the aerostat as fuel forthe engines of the machine during Hight, and thus reducing or destroying the aerostatic eect.

A machine vin accordance with my invention has the manifest theoretical advantages in that at starting by reason of the aerostatic element, it can take a greater load, While it can be transformed into an aeroplane at will by 'the consumption of the gas. lt should be noted that the broad ideaof feeding engines by means of the gas'used in ,the aerostat is not new per se since it has been proposed ,previously in purely acrostatic machines t0 use the gas `from the aerostat iii proportion as the weight of the vessel asa Whole diminished owing to `the consumption of the ordinary fuel so that the aerostatic effect remained constant.

The planes of the aeroplane element of my improved machine may bei-disposed in two or more pairs and be of monoplane,

biplaneor triplane type-and the size and lconsequently the buoyancy of the balloony or aerostat element may be such as to materially assist in supporting the machine and its load although not necessarily suiiicient to support the whole weight at any time Without the aid of the aeroplane ele-- ment.

The invention is illustrated. diagram- I inatically in the accompanying drawing. The gas may he contained Within the aerostat envelop or outer casing lwwhich :isf

preferably of rigid or semi-rigid type-in ballonnets 2 which `when full substantially iill the cnygelop or outer casing and means such-as tigtavir pump 3.may be provided to force air i'ilito the envelop?. so that as the gas is consumed. its place will be taken by air The ballonnets 4 which-leads to a mixin chamber or carbureter 6 and a control va ve 7 may be provided to control the flow of gas to the engine. I also propose to use petrol or other fuel for use in the Aengine in addition to `the gas or" the aerostat'. The constructional details of the machine are obviously capable of Wide modification and it will be understood that the area and arrangement of e plane surface l provided may be and preferably will be such as to permit a steady descent in the event of engine failure. vThe car or structure 8 carrying the engines and mechanism and the pilot and other personnel may be of boat like form so that in the event of descent upon Water the car can be cut away or separated from the main structure and used as a life boat.

It will be understood that the diagram does not pretend to show a practical struc' ture but is a mere diagram for villustrating g f f 152%,.133

Hw.. 'broad princ-plesf`0 my invention by in an initial rising of the flying mnchngelpf ,nw-uns of which the. range of the mac-hina, und subsequently in supplying u] for'saii driving means, and means for supplying gn "What I Chinn. und dosrv to secure by Lettu Suid reserynrin propown To the vol-tt ms patent is zd lun@y of gas ydrawn therefrom by the driving? -[ying machine. imrlmng n body, n'ngS nwnns. f 15 :xnchcd to sand body, n prolmller, duvlng In iestnnony whereof I nflx my sgnzltnw.

n'lmns thug-afn.; :l gas ruurvoir located nbovf': v mn! md5. -ifhc gus thm'exn scrvlng to assxst HENRY VILSON-FX. 

